Official – Fans’ Forum Minutes Say Pardew Staying As Manager

The Fans’ Forum meeting minutes from last Monday night’s meeting have just been released, and the club has said that Alan Pardew will be staying on as manager.

Alan Pardew – staying on as manager
Here’s the section of the minutes – right at the beginning – that says Alan is staying:

The board explained that a detailed statement had been issued to announce LC’s (Lee Charnley) appointment so that supporters were clear on how the club intends to move forward, but that questions posed by members would be addressed as openly as possible.

In addressing the document, the board stated that Alan Pardew (AP) will remain the club’s manager. The board stated that incorrect media reports which claimed Newcastle United had contacted other individuals about the manager position were in the hands of the club’s legal team.

So we may get more newspapers banned from the Newcastle club, whoever first started that rumor that we were after St Etienne manager Christophe Galtier – but the news was first published in France:

Here are the minutes of the meeting from last Monday night held at St. James’ Park, if you want to find out what happened.

Fans have been unhappy with Alan Pardew all this year becasue of the terrible results, but since late last week the news being leaked out was that Pardew would stay on as the Newcastle manager.

So now we hope that Alan, Lee Charnley, Graham Carr and others will now work their tails off to get some good new players to the club in the summer – maybe we can thn make a new start in August.

It’s disappointing jesper mate but I suppose it could be worse. We could end up with Joe again! I’ll wait now and see what they do this summer. Failure to spend now will mean disaster next season but the quality of the incoming will probably be a letdown. All the best to you and yours.

Joe Kinnear cannot come back to managing at all, he has a genuine heart problem that would 100% kill him. He even said himself, he was not trying to take over from Pardew at all, he was telling the truth.

I was joking Turkish mate. With Ashley in charge sacking Pardew and bringing in a replacement wouldn’t necessarily help us as Ashley screens them for their ability to be good lap dogs. Any other owner and I would have held out hope for a better manager to come in but not with Mike.

It’s official we are not interested in cup games, now there’s a surprise, ok can I suggest we boycott all cup games because there is no point. Bearing in mind our history of the FA cup ain’t been good since the 50s we ain’t missing much. What a load of tosses . Survival of the PL is a priority! no shit. So that Ashley can get his money.

jesp
don’t worry about it too much because when you think about it seriously you will see that we are actually in a win win situation.

1. if pardew continues to get results like we saw this year then we will get relegated. the good thing about relegation is ashley will be far more desperate to leave because the championship has not got the TV coverage like the premiership has.

2.ashley is so addicted to money which makes this season a season pardew can’t afford to let go wrong because if ashley is to allow pardew to spend £60million, pardew will have to make sure he has put it to good use. If he were to have spent 60 million and we were still playing as we did since january ashley would fire him right away knowing that pardew has just wasted £60 million worth of lovely money, So therefore pardew has got to perform well and get results.

if he doesn’t allow money to actually be spent then it’s best to just hope for relegation as managers want ambition their is enough signs of bad ambition already.

That might just be what happens toonking @15. We would have to get the spending absolutely spot on to make enough difference to really improve the side as we are going to lose 4 or 5 players and have already lost Cabaye. 60M may not be enough to do that. And if Pardew can’t rally the troops then he may be sacked early next season. It looks quite likely to be a relegation battle to me with no ambition at the top.l

Agree with your post earlier that theres nothing exciting in the Fans Meet Minutes except the points you mentioned.

The answers to footballing questions are a complete farce.
Might as well ask why we dont get proven reputed managers like van gaal and the club would say that we think AP is the best man to take us forward…
Silly answers…

And yeah..all that financial stuff will serve them well when we are relegated next year…people will be more interested in them when we are in the championship..

Where did the 60mill transfer budget rumor come from? I’ll believe that when I see it! I can’t see MA parting with much more than 25 mill tops. There will be just enough business done to keep us in the premier league if we’re struggling maybe a couple more in January.

Oldgit1
Just checked on how much getting to the FA Cup final and winning it is worth…
£1million for getting there
£3 Million for winning it
with TV rights the winning team make about £8 millon
Not much really in the bigger picture.

Maybe the FA should take part of the blame for Premiership Clubs lacking in their priorities/demise of the FA Cup by not getting decent sponsorship money/playing the clubs decent prize money and playing it 5.00pm on a Saturday

Hutchinson and Dublin agreed that AP will not be staying ‘too long’ at NUFC. I agree. He’s lost the fans and only winning, sexy football can turn that around…. Usually you can tell if he’s wanted by the new player cash he’s given, let’s see. I think he’ll be fired soon.

No chance we can survive with a 25M pound budget toonking mate. I think the 60M is just a guess by a couple of journo’s. We will have the 20M from the Cabaye sale and I could see Ashley committing another 20M of the TV money. That’s about it though. It won’t be enough. We need two quality strikers, a quality ACM, a quality winger, a quality LB and possibly a replacement for Debuchy if he leaves as well. Minimum spend to get that in a World Cup year? I would put it at 80-100M pounds. In other words a relegation battle for us.

G2,
left back? There’s 3 there, Dummett, ok, is Ch. level, but Haidara could play the part. Of course, Santon is a classy player who is better than both. I see him in a more advanced position and developing big time (with the new manager.)

jesp
the thing is ashley will still have in his head that pardew did manage to finish in 5th place the last time we spent money in a summer transfer window, so ashley will expect the same thing again this season and really it’s not actually pardew who picks the players, ashley himself decides weather or not we can buy them. the way it goes is pardew will say which positions he wants players to play the scout then searches for them and finally ashley decides weather or not we can buy them.

if you expecting him not to offer pardew money to spend all that will do show yet more signs to the world that their is no point going to newcastle weather your a manager coach or player because this will be a 3rd consecutive window without money spent and already in the last 2 seasons has shown signs of an owner who doesn’t want to progress.

so by saying things like
b) and Ashley satan’s spawn won’t send £60M knowing that we be better spend on famine than given to Pardew!
you are just looking at an even longer period with pardew.

a) Pardew won’t walk no matter what,
it’s not that i’m saying he will walk what i’m saying is he will be under much more pressure to get results and knows if he fails then ashley sacks him.

pardew won’t walk but if he did we still wouldn’t see good ones come in before the money gets spend as they want this owner to prove that he is willing to spend money.

jesper
if you follow newcastle so well jesper mate you will know for a fact that the summer before last was the summer which we had just got into europe mate so telling me that is a sign of bad manager is worst than pardews press conferance mate because when you finish 5th in the most difficult league of all their is no excuse for an owner not to spend money.

we might of had a bad season prior to the last summer transfer window but did you know their is a january transfer window and don’t forget we were up their in 5th place so again when an owner weakens a team and doesn’t spend money then it’s a sign he actually doesn’t want to see progress FACT.

Well those minutes have me even more depressed about our future. Not even a glimmer of hope about cups.
Pretty much said we’re going to be run on a shoestring and prem survival is all that matters. Wow!

“The board stated the club’s aim is to be the best it can be pound for pound” – can’t wait until I’m down the pub with my friends who support Liverpool and Chelsea. Them bragging about league, cup and European success… I can retort with the ultimate come back “we’ll we’re the best club £ for £”
That’ll make me sleep with a smile on my face.

Cyprus I like the looks of Haidara in his limited playing time with us but he is quite young. Dummett already looks fairly poor and I think Santon has been a shocking disappointment this season. He is no LB that I can see. So 1 young promising LB is all we have. Move Santon to the wing or sell him. Dummett won’t make it. Hence the need for a good senior left back mate.

Below are a selection of comments down the years from fans of previous clubs managed by Alan Pardew.
I collected many of them from various fan sites when I was doing my research on him when he was appointed as Newcastle United manager back in December 2010, however, I have also added quite a few made since that time. As you will see, they contain many horribly familiar comments about such things as bewildering tactics, blaming everyone and everything except himself a lack of abilty to motivate the players (despite the fact that prides himself on being a “Mr.Motivator” type psychological genius), long ball tactics, strange substitutions etc…

I have arranged the club’s in chronological order, starting with West Ham, then Charlton Athletic and finally, Southampton. Though you may think it’s quite a long list, believe me, I had to sift through alot more, especially from Charlton fans!

So here goes!

The West Ham fans.

under the thumb Tue Oct 23 – 12:35.

“We had a good season that first year back in the Premiership, granted, but beyond that look at the dross we played next year. He wouldn’t play Tevez or his mate and chose Hayden Mullins every week!

“I genuinely believe his bubble will burst again at Newcastle and before long the Geordies will be on his back…”

Jason E.7 Tue 11/13/2007 – 03:13.

“Pardew was an average manager who punched well above his weight for one year and we loved him for it. However when we were a known quantity he couldn’t change tactics and thats was that…”

DB1983 3:41 Fri Jan 25.

“Did you go to the first play off? When he took off all our strikers at 1 nil down?”

Anonymous Fri 12/08/2006 – 22:44.

“Pardew, Wednesday night was obviously a shambles, please please recognise the fact that we need someone in the team that can actually pass a football. Mascherano is recognised as a world class passer so please please play him, its nothing short of an embarassment when NRC, Yoss, Ethers are struggling to play a 5 yard pass to feet, let alone trying to spray the ball 40 yrds, sort it out. And ffs do not play long ball against Bolton as we will get F*****.”

worldwide-iron Fri, 02/16/2007 – 10:23.

“I wanted him out 2 seasons ago and have never wavered. He sneaked us into the prem with a squad that should have walked the Championship, had a good season although with only one plan, fast attack and was found out this season for not having a plan B. His summer signings were awful, no exception as he didnt sign Tevez. A lot of players have one good season and dissapear just like Pardew will. Lower league manager.”

under the thumb 11:49 Tue Oct 23

“I’m glad I don’t have to listen to the mans babble every week and he is no longer manager of this club. It won’t be long before Pardew hits the buffers at Newcastle as well and will be shown up for what he really is… a total c*** of a man.”

The Charlton fans.

BigRedEvilMember October 2008

“Shocking tactically. Seems oblivious to the problems that we all see in the stands. And then to come out and say we were unlucky. He is pushing it. Maybe he wants a nice little pay out ;-)”

kinveachyaddickMember October 2008

“He’s lost me after last night. Was the worst Charlton performance I have seen in a long, long time. Tactically all wrong and no passion from the players. Looking at our squad and comparing it others in the division anything less than a top six finish is simply not good enough.”

razilMember October 2008

“I actually think the more serious problem is he seems not be able to motivate the team. If that continues we may have a very rocky season ahead, hold on your hats.”

ChunesMember October 2008

“Yes. His tactics are inexplicable, and he seems to think that last nights performance was actually all part of a game plan. Which must be true considering it sounds similiar to the last two away performances. You can’t set up like that and just hope to ride your luck when you’re playing teams in the relegation zone. It’s just plain insanity.”

Miserableoldgit October 2008

“I’m sorry , but I can’t get past the fact that Luke Varney WAS winning the ball in the air and knocking it on to No-one. Surely that is Pardews thinking/plan.”

Weegie AddickMember October 2008

“OK, I was one of the first to say I’d lost it with Pards, but that was after over a year in the job – it was the New Year’s Day match v Colchester that was the final straw for me. By then I had heard enough of his b******t and was getting increasingly worried about his tactics and motivational ability.
Unfortunately, those worries have only been exarcerbated by the season to date. How long should we wait for these green shoots of improvement? My patience has run out, others is running out. Above all, what do the players really think? Some of them aren’t stupid, and if we feel he is all over the shop tactically, surely they are aware of that too and will lose (or maybe have lost) faith in him?

“And I’m not saying this to stir things up / create unrest. I’m saying it because I care deeply about the future of our club and have huge sympathy for the board, who potentially have to face more tough decisions unless Pardew can miraculously conjure up a few wins on the spin and a formation that works.”

nth london addick October 2008

“For me I am afraid it is a case of I want him to go (I am not happy about this either which is p****** me off more).

“But I have watched us in every home game except Reading and I have listened to 2 on the radio (with pals there saying it straight as well) that he has failed to come up with a plan to stop individuals attacking us time after time or our players being totally inept in their own positions.

“He is failing to accept that his game plan is not working and is unwilling to change it early enough,

“He has failed to take accountabillty for his errors during these games also.

“He does not see the same game as anyone who I have read posting on here as his post match interview doesnt match one that most on here have witnessed themselves.

“He is wrong for allowing that performance out of any performance they put together this season to come about,

“No shots on target unacceptable.

“No passion within the team and failure to accept responsibility on the pitch.

“Unable to pass to each other with any quality in the final third or to retain the ball for any length of time.

“Those 3 points should not happen in any game, let alone against those mugs, and are 3 points that the manager is solely responsible for. This is my opinion and the basis that I have now lost faith in Pardew.

“The final 2 points above No passion and poor passing have been key features in all games I have witnessed in every game this season ( i didnt see Reading live but i watched it on TV and that game is the only one that I will say we had a fire in our bellies).

“I f****** hate Pardew for making me feel this way as I beleived we had the right man in place and no one likes to be wrong, but it takes a man to admit it and I hope Pardew can at least hold himself accountable for his mistakes if he wont allow himself to walk away.”

kigeliaMember October 2008

“Pardew is his own worst enemy.

“He talks like a politician – lots of meaningless waffle and what he thinks people want to hear to make him look good.

“He seems to need to be seen to be doing something all the time…”

Anglia AddickMember October 2008

“I never liked the guy. always thought he was a smug g*t with a face that needed slapping with a wet fish. However, he joined Charlton and therefore had my backing – just like all the staff and players.

“Things looked positive when he arrived and even though we were going down I had high hopes for Championship season, unfortunately we look as poor as we did in the latter part of last season. Some of the team selection baffles me and comments about game plan are off the chart. And as for playing football the way it’s meant to be played… s***, how many shots did we have Tuesday??

“But I think we are stuck with him for now. I suggest he has a change arround at the training ground and puts some more posters on the walls about how to be confident and win games.”

taitr Posted 05 Nov 2008 12:39

“1. Has no tatical knowledge on a game of football
“2. Gets the worst out of half decent players
“3. Consistantly blames others when things arent going his way and NEVER takes any flack for himself
“4. Brings in c**p loan signings
“5. Has helped ruin 15 years of hard work that the legend curbs put in
“6. Dosent really have a likeablilty factor
“7. TIME FOR HIM TO GO
“8. TIME FOR HIM TO GO NOW
“9. PARDEW OUT.”

Christy Malyan 21st November 2012 at 6:31 pm

“By the way, a warning to all Newcastle fans about Alan Pardew – when things are going well for Pardew, they tend to go very well. But when the wheels come off, the man becomes somewhat powerless. It is not only his record at the Addicks that suggests this trend.”

bingaddickMember January 8, 2013

“I think he has always been a chancer tactically, playing players out of position, especially in attack.”

“I was surprised he did so well at Newcastle. This season, things have unravelled big time. What is astonishing, rather like with Dowie, boards are still prepared to employ a bulls****** who is full of front but very little delivery.”

“If someone asked who would be a better manager to appoint Dowie or Pardew?

“I would say Dowie, does exactly what it says on the tin so at least you are aware you must get rid quickly.”

The Southampton fans

Saints Flyer Thu 09th Dec 2010

“Tactically Pardew appeared naive, he would often get it wrong selection wise and we saw substitutions made before half time on more than one occasion and early double substitutions in the second half were commonplace. In hindsight we were too one dimensional and relied too much on Rickie Lambert who was in a purple patch of free kicks and penalties but rarely scored from total open play.”

Ali Iveson 20 February 2013

“Not only did Adkins achieve better results, he also did it in style with a team who liked to pass the ball. Under Pardew the style of football was alright, but nothing special. It was usually quite direct and relied heavily on long balls towards Lambert, although to call it ‘long ball’ football would be doing it a disservice. Compared to what we’ve seen under Adkins, Pochettino and even Jan Poortvliet it was not too appealing.”

fatletiss 25/10/2012, 10:46 PM.

“I was never a huge fan to be honest. I thought he never had a plan B. when he came, a charlton fan told me to watch out for bizarre subs. I remember away to Huddersfield early on when we went 2-1 down, he subbed a CB for a CB when we needed fresh attacking options. There was always something I didn’t like about him and never really trusted him.

“Having said that, I’m grateful he signed Rickie and I must say thanks for a great day at Wembley.”

Saint Neil 01/10/10 02:08 PM

“Not sure why Pardew is held in so much esteem with some supporters. I always had a niggling problem with Pardew anyhow, too many excuses and not enough passion from the sidelines. We did well to get to JPT final and win but was this because of Pardew or in spite of him? We stuttered badly at key times during the latter part of the last season that ultimately cost us a play-off place, not the 10 points deduction, was this perhaps down to poor management?

“This was then followed by a very poor pre-season and and very poor start to the season, with players looking unfit and unmotivated. Does this smack of good management?”

That’s how poor we were for half a season toon kk mate. Willo our best player? Steady at the back yes but we’ll need a lot more than that next season. With Remy gone no attack, with Cabaye gone no attacking midfield, with Benny gone little creative wing play. Where do we stand? Neck deep in the brown stuff.

I said during and after the season we finshed 5th our football has no foundation , we carnt build on good performances because there were so few, all we had was good results, of which most were down to luck,

I watched us play teams at the bottom of the league and struggle but some how win with either a long punt to Ba or a wonder goal by cisse or HBA

I was called by just about everyone for saying it as I seen it, I was told be happy look at the table ,

Does Pardew not look at the players he has, some of whom are about to leave and weep? He will lose Remy. We don’t want DeJong. We might lose Debuchy if he’s still sane. We might lose Krul. Benny will leave, as will Marveaux. We have already lost Cabaye. He has an owner he can’t count on and no plan going forward. He’ll get a bit to spend but the club is a shambles and he will be destroyed next season by the supporters if we start off poorly. Resign now Alan and save us all some suffering.

Terrible news. This mug is way out of his depth managing this football team if he had an once of dignity he would walk away but he is just gonna cling to his job like a parasite and take us further and further away from anything that could be considered “good football”.

He will get rid of any flair players we have and replace them with abject “hard working players”.

I have been told this a lot by posters on here, be careful what you wish for ,

well I’m saying it right back to them , be careful what you wish for , because you wish for us to give him our backing, but he will take us down anyway , and when we go down we will not come back up for a long time , we will not have the players to do so, he is ripping all the quality out of it,
not once has pardew won any league, gets up via play offs

F1 drivers can’t win races unless they are given decent cars that’s why vettel is now doing bad and hamilton is doing so good.

england can have a manager as good as cappello (CV proves it) but they still perform rubbish when they don’t have the players for it.

the motivation of a player in this modern era football requires more than a manager and the proof of that is when a club legend called alan shearer still was unable to save newcastle in them last 8 games.

if players respected a club so well then ba would not have commanded pardew to play him in CF, he would have accepted being the wide man as he know’s we had a good line up going.

HBA would never have had all these problems over his entire career if he was really so passionate and infact if he was as great as people say then he would not have even came to newcastle as we were a team which had just got back into the premier league the previous season, the same with marvo.

so if you still thing pardew did all this and we have a great team then, why not start singing praise mate, start showing the world that this owner of ours is the great owner because for every statement that says we have great players proves you honestly love ashley and think he has did this club great because it’s owners who spend money, owners who decide how much will be spent on players. the managers job is to put the resources to use.

the only way a manager and owner can both be blamed is if you STOP saying DUMMETT is POOR because THEY are what DON’T require MONEY.
HBA MARVO CISSE REMY DO.

I think the term you might be looking for in English is game plan niafron mate. Yes, we don’t seem to have one under Pardew except to get a 1 goal lead if at all possible and then defend desperately. Not much of a plan. And we never come back if we fall behind. A hopeless approach and definitely not part of the modern game as it is played by decent teams now.

Just read the Fans Forum minutes – not a lot learnt from the clubs’ responses – typical corporate non specific/waffle answers apart from a couple -continuing ban on nJC and confirming Percy Parsnip is still manager. All in all a bad newsday for Toon fans.
Smiled about the bit that the matter of the club approaching other managers was now in the hands of the legal team. Initial thoughts wow a court case in the future to get stuck into. We will never hear about this again.
The other bit was the land issue – questions were not really answered -there was a bit that they would have to buy the road to expand -probably not true -build over it – bit like the ten lane motorway under PSGs’ ground.
Really nothing to look forward to -Ii do think that they’ll spend some money this summer but God know who will be purchased -might be an initial period of competitive football – but then the Percy effect will take hold ir they’ll be Pardewed.
Bad day in the history of the club.

Looks like season ticket sales are no different from last season so we’re basically saying yes please mr Ashley and pardew no ambition in the cups and the se old drab shit, we’ll not me I’ll let my feet do the talking and not just my keypad GOOD LUCK !!!

Anybody watching the Europa cup final? It has everything that p!sses me off with modern football! The slightest touch and they’re down, with the whistle blowing every 30 seconds or so.
They have turned the game I grew up with into a farce. A no-contact farce at that!

Im actually in shock.. Cup is not a prioritert. It can damene OUR Main goal to retail in the pl?? Wow, just wow.. Im converting to the scums. Even they have more ambition than us.. Dear me, i want to cry..

even if it was the clubs intention not to contest the cups why on earth would state it all you will pi55 of the fans that pay to goto the cup matches also by stating this are we not damaging future gate money

there is a better way to do by stating that the league cup will be used as a way of blooding the youngsters
and the fa cup doesn’t start till jan and will be assessed at the time

we might all hate what pardew is saying but you have to remember this is just another person doing as his boss tells him.

peter beardsley and bob monkur have both said things recently that make it appear as though they feel ashley is doing fine but really they just saying words in a way which will keep the job safe.

a everyday person is not allowed to blame their boss for the problems otherwise the boss will sack that person and managers of football clubs are no different.

the thing you have to think about in relation to a good manager coming in while ashley is still around is, why did kevin keegan not bother staying when the state ashley has got this club in now is far worse than it was when keegan himself walked out.

No that would be far too clever for our club beermonkey mate. Just come out and say it Mike. We have no ambition. He doesn’t give a monkey’s what we think anyway so why not just say it as the club has done now? It’s all out in the open. No ambition, no new manager, spend as little as possible (as little as possible to achieve what? 17th place?).

we all getting annoyed with the toon and a not so entertaining football match but when we look at what football is like generally, would you say yourself that we will be better off in the championship or watching gateshead than watching a top tier team?

1. referees themselves are getting worse and worse with decisions every single week.

2. players are getting lesss and less passionate.

3 as steve bruce has said, a manager will last for 13 months on average which is really not long enough to build a team, so the pressure they under probably makes them more desperate to avoid defeats than score lots of goal and win games.

4. players are going down so easy now and acting as though they have been hurt just to get a free kick and try getting the opposing player booked.

For weeks you have been on here wee-ing your pants at the hilarious pranks of your mates mag, guvnor and validator.
Heaven knows why…..but they have all stopped posting at exactly the same time.
Yesterday, as decent bloggers began to re-emerge saying they had stopped posting for fear of being randomly abused by the f***wit”, you were on moaning that you had been, quite rightly, tarred with the same brush.
Tonight you are back, moaning that no-one will acknowledge you.
Have you ever heard the phrase “you’ve made your bed so lie in it?”
If I had my way, no-one would speak to you.

I first came across the blog when away from home at University in 2007 and it still is simply the best. Certainly worthy of a re-post. Clearly there are the same problems today but Ed Will overcome:

This Is Why We Created The Newcastle United Blog
September 15, 2009
Written by Dr. Ed Harrison
As long term readers of the blog will know, we have had our own problems with this web-site we created back in April, 2007.

And there have been at least a couple of times, mainly due to the comments getting way out of control, that we have considered just shutting the thing down completely.

When we started, one of the main reasons we cited for creating the web-site in the first place, was because we were stationed in Raleigh, NC in the US, and we thought we had a unique opportunity to put our own opinions out about all the news surrounding the Tyneside club, and there’s always a lot of that, to be sure.

That was especially true at the time, when the Premier League and Newcastle’s games were being beamed live around the world.

Every single PL game in truth is televised and shown over here, and if it’s not live on TV, it can be found on one the many growing PC sites that show football games live.

We can tell you that’s hardly the same now, in the Championship, which is one reason we considered giving the gig up, when the club was relegated in May – because we just couldn’t watch many of the games.

And by the way, just to kill the myth about how much money this site makes – and the nasty letters I get from people who seem to think I’m making a bundle on this.

My personal billing rate per hour, when I was an Executive Consultant at IBM and hired out to other companies, at the end of my consulting career, was more than I receive in one full month from this site.

That’s absolutely true – so let’s hope that will end any debate , and no more nasty letters please. Good job I’m not doing this for the money.

Well, back to the only reason for this article – here’s one of the heart-warming letters we received on the 2nd of September:

How are you doing?

My name is Sgt. Caleb Heagerty, and I’m an Infantryman in the US Army, and I found the beautiful game of football back in 2004 while in Baghdad, during my first tour to Iraq.

All the kids there played and I saw one kid who I became close with from the Al Amiriya neighborhood, who I called Frankenstein and he had a Newcastle United shirt on.

We struck up a bond of friendship and I discovered Newcastle – I’ve been in love with the Toon ever since.

Although it feels like I boarded a sinking ship I can’t shake my loyalty to the Magpies.

I was wondering if y’all knew of any supporters clubs in Missouri, USA and if y’all new how I could watch the soda pop games on TV stateside.

Anyways just a Yank who loves football and loves Newcastle United.

We sent Sgt. Heagerty the information about PL games being on Fox Sports, Setanta Sports and now ESPN over here in the States, which all show PL games live.

Kevin Keegan is the new, rather impressive analyst at ESPN, and Warren Barton does a great job as the main analyst at Fox Sports.

And whenever Warren was reporting on a live Newcastle game, he would wax lyrical about both the club, the fans and the St. James’ Park Cathedral. Let it never be said that Warren Barton doesn’t just love Newcastle United – it was so great to hear him!

So you can see Newcastle is all over Stateside, even though the club is currently now in England’s second division.

But to get that letter from Sgt Heagarty was just so heart warming, because he is now a firm Newcastle United fan, and an avid reader of the blog we may add.

And apart from that, he is one of the thosuands of Military men in both Britain, America and other countries , who have shown so much courage, in the terrible wars taking place in both Baghdad and Afghanistan.

That’s another reason why we greatly admire Sgt. Caleb Heagerty.

This article is dedicated to Sgt. Caleb Heagerty, and all those brave souls like him around the world.

Toon king….I will always watch the toon no matter what league they’re in. My beef is with the state of the game in general. I simply do not enjoy overpaid pansies falling all over the place trying to control the game by deceit. The game was a physical contest as well as a game of skill, the powers that be have removed one part of it completely.
Might as well as watch my son play FIFA and cheer one of those sides on.
The soul has gone out of the game for me.

Good point cyprus. But would he want a wage to come to us? We don’t like wages. And are there any agent’s fees involved? I mean I don’t want to get his hopes up or anything that he could be coming in as our new manager.

clinath@ed
i wasn’t getting at you, all i was saying myself is whilst some fans think it’s only ashley and pardew at for the misery of newcastle, really as you say and i say it’s really football in general that is a complete mess.

fifa uefa FA and premier league are all just useless.

players put money before anything, the ambitious type have gone.

owners take advantage of all the money that is in football.

even fans i think are no help themselve because fans put too much pressure onto managers and expect them to do well right away. the thing they don’t know is that the owners and players are taking avantage of this because they don’t care about clubs they just want money.

money has did to football what it does to so many other things in life, it’s ruined football.

Only thing we can hope for now is that West Ham sack Allardyce and go for Pardew to replace him.

The boards lack of ambition is disgusting. We know the potential the squad has (maybe that should read had) and European qualification is within our reach. I am convinced that Mike Ashley owns us for the sole reason of promoting his business, the money which he has made from us is an added bonus.

The way in which he masks his true intentions is through the use of Alan Pardew. This man would certainly have a far more successful career in PR than he ever has or will in football management. His constant lowering of expectations is an insult to our collective intelligence and I’m surprised anyone still stands by him in all honesty. I actually gave him until this season to win me over but the negative football (worst I’ve seen us play in my 20 years as a Toon fan) he’s enforced on us is a disgrace to our tradition. He knew he was never in any danger of losing his job as Ashley has no intention of firing someone who tows the party line, taking the flack for him, and hiring someone he has never worked with before. Even if Ashley was to do the unexpected and replace him, he’d most likely bring in a Wise/Kinnear-esque manager or promote one of the backroom staff, likely Beardsley, to the role.

Whilst I have attacked both Ashley and Pardew for their role in the demise of our club, we need to recognize the worst enemy of Newcastle United Football Club; Us.
We are quite possibly the least functional, organised, and united fans in the country. Its not a question of which fans group should we follow, since most of us are divided on the present and future of our club anyway! Unfortunately, there will always be a core of fans who are happy to go to St, James’ week in, week out, and watch the utter dross served to them by the Ashley regime. In addition to this, we now have fans who are more concerned with the financial side of the club and somehow are overjoyed that we’re one of two clubs in the Premier League (more likely all of English football) who run a profit season after season. At what point did football become about enjoying the accounts? I’m not denying that its admirable but we are nothing like Arsenal, who at least invest in their squad and youth development every summer.
Finding a common goal between us Newcastle fans is going to be incredibly difficult, if not impossible. The current fan groups are failing to represent us and our ambitions for the team. We need a new, proactive fan group which is able to effectively organize us fans into a coalition of sorts. We’re never going to agree on everything but if everyone is at least in the same group, with fair representation of everyone’s views, at least we will make some progress. Whether that’s, the removal of Pardew and Ashley through means of popular protest, or the backing of the team to turn St. James back into the stadium it was, remains to be seen. However, before we achieve any of this, we need to form a new fans group capable of galvanizing and uniting us.

Perhaps I’m an idealist but I really believe that if we can effectively form a new fan group, which is run correctly bu the right people, then I think we can really make a change. I do not agree with the ultras of Italy, Russia, and Eastern Europe, but their influence on with the board is impressive to say the least. That is something we as fans need. We need constant communication with the board but we also need leverage; not in the form of violence, but in the form of popular and mass protest.

JFA
At this moment of time, he’s right. However, there’s clearly a lot of us who agree that Ashley is wrong for the future of our club and I’m sure that it is within our means to create a fan group capable of organizing mass protest. Only problem is we need the right people to establish such a group.

I wonder what percentage of our new signings will turn out to be duds we ultimately can’t shift. Obertan, Marv, Gos, even arguably Benny, have been delivering far too little while on decent money and simply clogging up the roster, for what seems years. Mbiwa might turn out to be another, he has that vacant look about him. Cisse?, or DeJong too, for if Carr had gotten his way. It’s great to have some money to spend, if that’s to be the case. But how well it’s spent is entirely crucial of course. I don’t think Carr is infallible at all, nor Pards you’d certainly think, if he’s to be more invloved. I think if we don’t get it right, Ashley just might not do an awful lot about it, other than let us lie in our beds.

Decent game just about to go to penalties, but they’ve had Tim Sherwood on as a panelist, have to say fair play to him given the disgusting way Spurs handled his tenure and sacking he’s been very dignified and professional

tads
Its actually been a pretty good game. Not a fan of Sherwood though, feel like he hasn’t handled himself around the press very well. What Tottenham did was classless, but, Sherwood has made himself out to be a bit of a prat this season.

G2
On santon, disagree a bit
He had a great first full season when he eventually broke through but had been terribly out of form before we signed him and had gone from rated under Mourinho but eventually getting loaned out to AC Cesena where he only played 11 games

Fantastic win ratio for them got them playing well, bought through a couple of youngsters found a great way to get performances out Eriksen and all he done was face question after question about when he was getting sacked

tads
He just doesn’t conduct himself in a professional enough way for me. For some reason, he reminds me of Kinnear.
No doubt he’s done a better job than AVB but I still have doubts over his tactical ability.

In honor of two dedicated Newcastle fans, who lost their lives supporting Newcastle United, when their passenger jet was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday July 17th, 2014 by rebels, as they were traveling to support the team in New Zealand.

We will never forget them.

Fantasy League

Mark Harding has again set up the Fantasy League for our readers for this season.

The new code is 3641-1656 and people can set up the league here:

http://fantasy.premierleague.com

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Health Update - 4 Feb, 2015

I had another battery of medical tests early last week, and the results show my PSA count as undetectable, which means the prostate cancer is still under control, and there is no trace of cancer in the body.

I'm very pleased about that!

Ed Harrison

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What Is A Football Club?

“What is a club in any case?"

“Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it.

It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes."

“It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city."

“It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”